As an entrepreneur, product designer and product manager for people management and predictive analytics software, I have seen a number of problems related to creating useful products, and getting things done. I decided to keep track of some common scenarios. All views are mine. Not my employers'.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Best Animation Scene Is The One That Does Not Look Like It Is Animated

The best animation scene is the one that does not look like it is animated.

Remember the scene from the movie Forest Gump, where Forest plays ping-pong. After I watched the movie I started wondering how they filmed it. Later, I listened to an interview by the animators from Industrial Light and Magic and they said that there was no ball in the scene. The ball was actually an animation that was meant to make Tom Hanks the actor look like a ping-pong virtuoso.

Similarly, The ultimate triumph of an interface design is when the interface and the elements of the interface are invisible and people don't realize that some interface is in place.

A good example is a chair. Such design was not prevalent in the software industry due to technology constraints. With the advent of touch interfaces, I am hopeful that we are getting there.